Voters in the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) went to the polls on Sunday to elect their new leader from seven candidates including incumbent Dervis Eroglu.

Voters in the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) went to the polls on Sunday to elect their new leader from seven candidates including incumbent Dervis Eroglu.

Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0500 GMT) and were to close 10 hours later.

About 176,000 people are eligible to vote in the breakaway TRNC, which occupies about a third of the eastern Mediterranean island.

Only Turkey recognizes the TRNC, which relies on Ankara to provide one third of its annual budget.

If no single candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, a second round of balloting will take place on April 26.

Eroglu's main challengers are Sibel Siber - the sole woman candidate, the head of parliament and a former prime minister --and Mustafa Akinci, an independent.

The island has been split since 1974, with about 1,000 peacekeepers monitoring a ceasefire line that cuts through the heart of Nicosia, Europe's last divided capital.